Describe how you imagine WoW being if flying mounts were never introduced.

[SoulForge]

If blizzard was to ever introduce a server that had no flying mounts you would see less people on during the day then you do on a dead server today.

Flying mounts are a big QoL improvement. They have more or less killed world PvP, but at the same time most people found it annoying.

World PVP died when BG's came around. I was there for that one

[Deleted]

Even if they aren't needed in some quest you are on, they are still part of the world and still supposed to be a threat, that's the whole idea of it... It's a WORLD where the NPC's are "individuals" who you can do your best to avoid if you don't wish to fight them.

Your character is supposedly traveling from point A to point B, do you really think that a hungry savage bear will care if you have a quest to kill him or not? He will want to eat your flesh anyway and you will have to do your best to either avoid him or kill him.

Look I enjoy RP but there is a difference in quaility of experience, killing savage bears isn't high on that list. Especially in a world filled with portalmage that could transfer me everywhere, so much for immersive gameplay, ey

[Itisamuh]

If they had never introduced flying mounts, it would have made no difference on a PvE server, but PvP servers would be way more fun. No more safe zones, no more easy escapes, no more wussing out when retaliation shows up. Unfortunately, they were introduced, and even if they hurt the game, to remove the convenience would anger too many lazy and wussy people.

[Puri]

Well, I think I would have quit wow during BC then, because it would be utterly silly to add several raids and dungeons which you could not reach - because you could not fly to them (like the eye), or complete the required attunements (like Arcatraz for Karazhans Master's Key).

[Orby]

Its one of those things I remember everyone asking for we all wanted flyng mounts there wasdemand on the forums all the way through TBC and Vanilla, although we did get them eventually in TBc we realy wanted them int he classi world too.

Guess its one of those things "be careful what you wish for"

[Arbs]

Do i have to be really honest?

The game would have been the same as now, since no one would have even the concept of the flying mount. More world PvP for sure, but everyone would be used to it and very likley most servers would have gone all horde /all alliance because of the natural aggregation of players on more playable realms.

Flying mounts are a big QoL improvement. They have more or less killed world PvP, but at the same time most people found it annoying.

Well think about on PvE Servers, removing or changing Flying Mounts only really affects PvE / RP Servers & removes the QoL changes it gave.
But on PvP servers its doesn't do much as people will prbly still refuse to do it.

Once again Flying Mounts didn't kill World PvP, Instanced PvP killed the need to do World PvP in large groups & PvP unbalance is what prevents people from doing it.
World PvP is never suppose to be fair it never was & never will.

[l33t]

Recent experiments have shown, that people can not be pleased "ToC is shit, one big room with 5 bosses and no trash" vs "Trash before dark Shamans is insane and annoying", when any decent human being should go "The amount of trash is just right, in most places it works with the story and environment, but it also pleases people who want huge trashpacks and those who prefer areas between bosses without".

Nope...on forums it is always "This spot right here is shit and does not meet 99% of my comfort zone, change it RAWWRRRRWWW"

Nah, Blizzard failed hard with amounts of thrash in first half of ToT. Now it looks like they've learned their lessons, because thrash in SoO is just almost perfect. Not only it fits zone and story, it (again) serves the historical function of introducing parts of boss' mechanics to players.
Oh, and special thanks for skippable movies. Pre-tortos movie was a disaster.

Anyway, back on topic. I think that without flying mounts everything would be slooooooooooooow as hell. Not to mention the simple fact that to make mobs really a danger, mobs should be reverted to their pre-cata state. I seriously doubt that even if you gather half of zone mobs in one arena and put there a player of their level, twink-geared, they could do anything meaningful to player. So, in fact, having no fly mounts would lead to only inconvenience and more time-sinking. I doubt that even more time-sinking is good in any way. Of course, this is spoken from a pve-server playing perspective.

[Arbs]

If they had never introduced flying mounts, it would have made no difference on a PvE server, but PvP servers would be way more fun. No more safe zones, no more easy escapes, no more wussing out when retaliation shows up. Unfortunately, they were introduced, and even if they hurt the game, to remove the convenience would anger too many lazy and wussy people.

Exactly, PvP servers could restrict Flying Mounts, But it would do nothing either way aslong as Instanced PvP exists & Unbalanced Factions on servers exist, World PvP will still be Dead.

[Slaughty8]

I would quit, because many times map is not ground-mount friendly. If it was ground-mount friendly, then ok, but it's not. I dislike wasting time on traveling, using flying transport always made me mad, because it took forever to fly from Orgrimmar to lower part of Kalimdor.
I prefer Warhammer Online/Guild Wars 2 transport, instant and fast, so you don't waste 20 minutes on watching the map or browsing the internet.

[Condemner]

Honestly: The game would have been better without flying from WOTLK onwards. It shouldve just been a themed perk of TBC in hindsight.

Flying mounts is one of the best examples where blizz SHOULDNT have listened to players requests wanting them everywhere.

Lol, except that I think most people probably still want to keep flying mounts....

If there werent flyingmounts there would probably be more teleports of some sort. I think the only difference it would make is that you'd have to travel on foot if you were to go back to certain spots in a specific continents/zones which I really don't see the point of except for hunting rares.

When leveling in current content you are unable to fly. It's where you explore everything till you are 90, I really don't see the point why I should be on the ground after that.

All current content are no fly zones, which works perfectly.

[Caelia]

Flying mounts are one of the better things Blizzard added to the game.
Yes world PVP is fun, but that died the second BGs were released way back in classic WoW which was way before flying mounts were introduced.
And if flying mounts weren't available I think the remaining 300 alliance on my server of 60000 horde would just move to a better place.

Being stuck on the ground while leveling in new content is fine, but once that's done with you should be free to explore the world as you want, no one is forcing you to use flying mounts if you don't want to.

[brirrspliff]

Do people not realize World PvP died when Battlegrounds got released & not cause of Flying Mounts. Just excuses.

Shhhhh, they they didn't get the memo

SHHHHHH. you both miss the point. "competetive" world pvp for honor died because of battlegrounds, and that's fine. the "normal", occasional world pvp died because of flying mounts. you don't pvp for points in the world - you pvp for survival / ressources / territory / quests / mobs / ... / etc. today people fly in, loot, and fly out.

oh, here's your memo guys:
real world pvp died because of flying mounts.

[Deleted]

The world would certainly feel larger, and honestly the world was more immersive when you simply couldn't just fly over it without a care in the world.

[Deleted]

I imagine quite a few of the rare drop mounts from instances would be different haha.

[huth]

SHHHHHH. you both miss the point. "competetive" world pvp for honor died because of battlegrounds, and that's fine. the "normal", occasional world pvp died because of flying mounts. you don't pvp for points in the world - you pvp for survival / ressources / territory / quests / mobs / ... / etc. today people fly in, loot, and fly out.

oh, here's your memo guys:
real world pvp died because of flying mounts.

No, it died because there was little point to it and people don't actually enjoy it. You know, the reasons they even attempt to avoid it in the first place. Flying only gave them a means to that end.

[Deleted]

The game would be played by students and the unemployed exclusively. They'd spend half their time tabbed out waiting for the wyvern to drop them off at the desired location.

For all the things flying has spoiled, the time saving nature of them at end game is not something I could do without. IoT and timeless isle work because they are small areas. Imagine doing all your 5.0 dailies on a ground mount. It would have taken twice as long.

[Deleted]

World PvP was still a big thing on my server all the way up to like s4 during TBC, we'd have regular organized events, surprise attacks on cities with entire guilds and a genuine faction rivalry with 2 massive opposing PvP guilds.

Seemed to come to a sudden stop once WotLK came out however, make of that what you will :|

[Deleted]

SHHHHHH. you both miss the point. "competetive" world pvp for honor died because of battlegrounds, and that's fine. the "normal", occasional world pvp died because of flying mounts. you don't pvp for points in the world - you pvp for survival / ressources / territory / quests / mobs / ... / etc. today people fly in, loot, and fly out.

oh, here's your memo guys:
real world pvp died because of flying mounts.

I would say it acually give the PvP servers a fair chance at things, how many servers are even at a fair ratio by now? Because 1:2-1:4 ration isn't exacly the spawn of awesome WPvP

Also the isles at least gives WPvP a little something

[Aristocat]

I really love the flying mounts. I remember back in the old days of BC as i finally managed to get all the gold for my first flying mount. Holy sh** that was one of the best moments i ever had in WoW and im thankfull that blizzard implemented them, but i think that flying in capitals like Orgrimmar and Stormwind etc is a little too much.

Removing it from the capitals would be great but completely removing flying mounts would make traveling and leveling horrible.

[Deleted]

Strong and stable in-game economy. Happier and more engaging players as it would take longer to explore zones, do quests, farm mobs and crafting mats etc. More and better outdoor PVP and PVE. Probably less players though since it wouldn't be casual friendly anymore.